Re: IE *p and *b

On 2007-12-09 16:56, meska_jd wrote:

> Yet, I am right. In Irish there is no *sp-, change to *sw- has
> happened before Common Celtic has splitted into Irish and other
> languages. So if we speak about Irish not about IE from which Common
> Celtic has developed, then my statement is correct.

I'd question that. Schrijver reconstructs the PCelt. cluster as *sP-,
and McCone as *sp- (later changing to *sb-). There are possible examples
of *sp- spelt as <sp-> in Gaulish. Crucially, *sp- and *sw- yield
different reflexes in Brittonic (f- and hw-, respectively), so the
merger can't be common Celtic.

> I think you understand the chronology of Irish sound development
> incorrectly and attribute Common Celtic development to Irish. There
> was no *p neither in Celtiberian nor in Gaulish, when there was no
> such thing as Irish yet.

"The prehistory of Irish" includes Proto-Celtic, to my mind. I didn't
intend to imply that _all_ the changes in question were restricted to
the lineage of Irish alone.

Piotr